CHANS-Net members gear up for AGU again

A group of CHANS-Net members are soliciting abstract submissions for two  symposium.

The Global Environmental Change session “Adaptation of Smallholder Farmers to Climate Variability in the Tropics”
 at the AGU Fall Meeting Dec. 9-13 in San Francisco.

Meha Jain, a 2012 CHANS Fellow, Ruth DeFries, a CHANS-Net advisory board member, and Pinki Mondal, all of Columbia University and Gillian Galford of University of Vermont are conveners of session GC017.

Description: Climate change is predicted to negatively impact agricultural productivity across most of the tropics, where smallholder agriculture is the main livelihood for the majority of rural populations. Current models may over-estimate the impact of climate on agricultural production, however, given that farmers may adapt cropping practices that are better suited to novel changes in climate.

They invite submissions that examine observations of climate and agricultural management at local, regional, and national scales, so that any commonalities can be identified in factors that enhance the ability of farmers to adapt and reduce their vulnerability to changing climates.

Abstracts can be submitted here.

"Observational Networks of Mountain Social-Ecological Systems" focuses on data capture and integration relative to social-ecological systems in mountain regions. Mountains concentrate critical economic resources (particularly water), are extremely dynamic, and exist within a wide variety of institutional settings. Informed management of such coupled systems requires accurate and integrated data on the state and dynamics of both the social and ecological sub-systems. 

Contributions are welcome from any region in the world, especially if using observational networks on biophysical features such as climate, hydrology, and ecology, or on social features such as demography, economy and governance, and on ways to combine them to quantify the functioning of coupled human-natural systems.

Confirmed speakers include Julio Betancourt and Dave Schimel.

Deadline: All abstract submissions must be received by Aug. 6. 

CHANS-Net had an active presence at last year’s AGU Fall Meeting. See details here.